I couldn't pass up this deal from Bestbuy. I basically paid $100+tax for the Roamio. However, I'm currently paying $7 for my DVR box and $20 for the DVR services monthly. I have 2 DVR boxes so $14. Total for my DVR setup is $34/month.

I was thinking about buying the lifetime for Roamio which can be had for $399 plus I had plans to get a Mini. The Mini costs around $90+$150 for lifetime. All in all, I'm paying roughly 755 total for lifetime services. To break even, I'd have to use the Tivo about 23 months. Which sounds like a good deal long term but here's my dilemma. With my cable boxes, anything breaks, I can turn it in and get a new one for free. I can't do that with Tivo. And I can't imagine myself using it for more than 3 years as it's probably going to be outdated. So I'd still have to buy a new Tivo and I don't think my subcripstion carries over to the new one, does it?

Another question, do I get cable on demand with Roamio?

Besides what I already posted, anything else that the Tivo offers that my cable DVR's don't?

I was thinking about buying the lifetime...To break even, I'd have to use the Tivo about 23 months. Which sounds like a good deal long term but here's my dilemma. With my cable boxes, anything breaks, I can turn it in and get a new one for free.

true, you can trade leased equipment (if it's not your fault), but tivo has a history of working with lifetime customers to resolve equipment failures (they want you to stay and be satisfied with the service). any device can fail, but the odds of failure during the first two years (no external causes) is unlikely, and by that time you've hit your break even point. even if a hard disk goes bad (the most common failure), you'd still be at break even again in an additional 4 months if you replace it yourself. without factoring in a lifetime sub, your monthly bill should still be lower with tivo month-to-month.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VajraTLR

...I don't think my subcripstion carries over to the new one, does it?

no.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VajraTLR

do I get cable on demand with Roamio?

that depends on your cable provider and where you live, you can find out here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VajraTLR

Besides what I already posted, anything else that the Tivo offers that my cable DVR's don't?

have you ever used tivo? that's the best way to compare. again, without knowing your cable service and equipment i can't answer specifically, and they may not be features that you value. in my town: tivo to go, pandora, spotify, rhapsody, live 365, podcaster, photobucket, picasa, netflix, youtube, hulu+, amazon instant video, & mlb.tv to start. you can add tivo desktop for a few more features.

true, you can trade leased equipment (if it's not your fault), but tivo has a history of working with lifetime customers to resolve equipment failures (they want you to stay and be satisfied with the service). any device can fail, but the odds of failure during the first two years (no external causes) is unlikely, and by that time you've hit your break even point. even if a hard disk goes bad (the most common failure), you'd still be at break even again in an additional 4 months if you replace it yourself. without factoring in a lifetime sub, your monthly bill should still be lower with tivo month-to-month.

no.

have you ever used tivo? that's the best way to compare. again, without knowing your cable service and equipment i can't answer specifically, and they may not be features that you value. in my town: tivo to go, pandora, spotify, rhapsody, live 365, podcaster, photobucket, picasa, netflix, youtube, hulu+, amazon instant video, & mlb.tv to start. you can add tivo desktop for a few more features.

that's your decision. i prefer tivo compared to what's available in my town, and it's less expensive.

Thanks for the reply! I have not used TiVo before. I called my cable provider(Charter), and they confirmed that TiVo does support all features so I won't lose anything at all.

For peace of mind you can get the 4 year warranty at Best Buy for $35 if you buy it within 15 days of your Roamio purchase. I used part of the $50 gift card on it and then picked up a mini at the same time and used the rest of the gift card on a 4 year Mini warranty which costs $20.

You also need to factor in the rate increases that cable companies are so good at, I doubt their DVR prices will remain the same for 3 or 4 years. My cable provider was increasing DVR rental charges almost yearly until I couldn't take it anymore and went with a Tivo, should have done it long ago!

For peace of mind you can get the 4 year warranty at Best Buy for $35 if you buy it within 15 days of your Roamio purchase. I used part of the $50 gift card on it and then picked up a mini at the same time and used the rest of the gift card on a 4 year Mini warranty which costs $20.

You also need to factor in the rate increases that cable companies are so good at, I doubt their DVR prices will remain the same for 3 or 4 years. My cable provider was increasing DVR rental charges almost yearly until I couldn't take it anymore and went with a Tivo, should have done it long ago!

How does the BB warranty work with TiVo lifetime service in case the TiVo needs a replacement?

And I can't imagine myself using it for more than 3 years as it's probably going to be outdated.

I would expect that you should be able to get use it for far more than 3 years as long as you don't do something like switch from cable to satellite. I would expect that TiVo might release newer models but that does not make the current model unusable for the capabilities that it has today.

We're still using our original S3 OLED TiVo's that we bought almost 7 years ago with lifetime as they are still great DVR's with the added capabilities of Netflix, Pandora and the ability to transfer shows to our PC's (the latter being something you can't do with your cable DVR although note that if you are using Time Warner I understand they greatly restrict that ability).

To break even, I'd have to use the Tivo about 23 months. Which sounds like a good deal long term but here's my dilemma. With my cable boxes, anything breaks, I can turn it in and get a new one for free. I can't do that with Tivo. And I can't imagine myself using it for more than 3 years as it's probably going to be outdated.

Three points:

1- already said, but the premieres are still being sold and are nearly four years old. A bit of a slow interface, but they work just great overall. Look at the product cycle more akin to a video game console rather than an Apple model.

2- Your three year calculation is missing a vital piece that many forget. With lifetime, resale will likely be a few hundred bucks even when a new box comes out. That would take the payback from 3 years to something significantly less. (a Premiere with lifetime is 300-350 and without is 50)

3- Tivo has many features that a cable co box does not. Streaming, built in netflix and other providers, pandora, spotify, just to name a few. Matters to me, but may not to you.

One warning. TiVo and Charter to not support video on demand. So if you use that, that might be an issue.

As others implied, TV is TV. There isn't rally much on new models that are must have. More tuners was desirable, but the Roamio has six and that should be plenty for nearly everyone. I can't see this box becoming obsolete for many years.

And I can't imagine myself using it for more than 3 years as it's probably going to be outdated.

I don't get this line of thought. My NEWEST Tivo is from 2008. My oldest is from 2005. All 3 of them are still running just fine. Granted, only one is HD, but they still work and serve their purpose. Unless there is some dramatic change in technology, your Roamio will work just as it does today. Just because a new product line comes out, does not render your box obsolete. The only major changes in the last few generations of Tivos has been the move to HD and the addition of more tuners. Like I said, aside from a major change in TV tech, I don't know what could make a Roamio 'outdated'.

I couldn't pass up this deal from Bestbuy. I basically paid $100+tax for the Roamio. However, I'm currently paying $7 for my DVR box and $20 for the DVR services monthly. I have 2 DVR boxes so $14. Total for my DVR setup is $34/month.

I was thinking about buying the lifetime for Roamio which can be had for $399 plus I had plans to get a Mini. The Mini costs around $90+$150 for lifetime. All in all, I'm paying roughly 755 total for lifetime services. To break even, I'd have to use the Tivo about 23 months. Which sounds like a good deal long term but here's my dilemma. With my cable boxes, anything breaks, I can turn it in and get a new one for free. I can't do that with Tivo. And I can't imagine myself using it for more than 3 years as it's probably going to be outdated. So I'd still have to buy a new Tivo and I don't think my subcripstion carries over to the new one, does it?

Another question, do I get cable on demand with Roamio?

Besides what I already posted, anything else that the Tivo offers that my cable DVR's don't?

Based on the price it's the Basic one. Bestbuy currently has a promotion where they give you a $50 gift card if you buy a Roamio. People have been convincing them to price match Amazon, which has them for $150, and then still getting the $50 GC making it essentially $100.

You have to determine this for yourself. But, as has already been mentioned, a lifetime Tivo has some resale value. "Some" can mean hundreds of dollars in some cases. (i.e. basically for the last generation of Tivos)

You are "gambling" that you will be ahead after 24 months (I'm using your timeframe, I didn't figure it out myself with your #s). I think that's an EXTREMELY short time, IMHO. What I mean is that after 2 years, *the same amount of time that people go into contract on cell phones for every day*, you will be SAVING MONEY.

Of course this is a Tivo-oriented site, so most of us think the Tivo's UI is better than the cable box UI. (Personally, if I could own the hardware, pay lifetime, and be able to download shows OFF of the DVR like you can with non-protected content on Tivos, DISH's PrimeTime AnyTime MIGHT be enough to get me to TRY a switch..) But since none of those criteria are met, I'm using Tivo.